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Ring Of Combat Xii

The Ring Of Combat Tournament Of Champions got off to a rip-roaring start at The Tropicana last night in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The first installment of the tournament got underway as local heroes, up-and-comers, and seasoned veterans from different parts of North America all came to the tournament to advance and hopefully find a way to take home some of the cash the winners of the series will receive. And maybe, just maybe, to win a fight or two in the process. It was a night of blistering endings, foot-stomps, and left-hooks that kept most of the crowd in awed enthusiasm, squirming around in anticipation for more action. And with an excellent production value and the overall organization of this first round of this tournament, promoter Lou Neglia might very well be on the verge of something special here.

PRELIMINARY BOUTS

140 lbs: Steve Vitti (Rhino) vs. Joe Bentz (Fight Factory)
A good win for a newer talent. Vitti came out hard, went for a big flying knee, but eventually it was his ground game that got him the hard-earned "W," with an impressive triangle near the end of the second round.

165lbs: Joe Scarola (Serra-Longo) vs. Bill Worfolk (Depasquale JJ)
Scarola had Worfolk close with a guillotine early on, but lost it when Worfolk gouged Scarola’s eyes. Scarola got revenge a short time later with a tighter-than-tight armbar that closed the deal.

Payback is a bitch

Worfolk digs his fingers into Scarola’s eye(and every other orifice he can find on Scarola’s face)

Worfolk writhes in pain after being caught in an armbar

LIGHTWEIGHT TOURNAMENT

Boine (right) vs. Roddy

Kevin Roddy (Rhino) vs. Rich Boine (Tiger Schulmann)
Roddy and Boine are rising stars in the lightweight division, and this one was a hell of a match-up. Roddy tried to force his game on the ground and extend his arms while standing, but Boine was just too sharp all around, and the southpaw finally found his moment with a left hook at the beginning of the third round.

Charles Wilson (Double Tap) vs. James "Binky" Jones (Ground Control/Renzo)
Wilson showed some flash and determination, but Jones was just too good, too experienced, and wouldn’t fall for much this night. Jones is back with a win.

Ian Loveland (Team Quest) vs. Will Kerr (Strikezone)
Along with Rich Boine, Loveland has to be the other favorite in the lightweight division. Solid wrestling intertwined with his athleticism and submission know-how, Kerr just couldn’t match Loveland’s ability, and found himself guillotined halfway through the first round.

Colin O’Rourke (Renzo Gracie) vs. Yon Guenecha (FFA/Young Tigers)
O’Rourke did what he does best on a good night — take his opponent to the ground and either pound him out or look for the sub. Here, O’Rourke chose to rain down thunder; opponent Guenecha was unable to weather the storm for very long and tapped out.

Phillipe Nover (Insight) vs. Abner Lloveras (Esport Rogent/BTT)
A back and forth affair, Nover took the nod in a well-deserved split decision. Nover could be tough in the second round of this tournament.

Coleman

Jay Coleman (Rhino) vs. Dominic Dellagatta (Tiger Schulmann)
This was perhaps the most anticipated match-up of the night. Dellagatta, an intense and gifted wrestler. Coleman, a strong and furious grappler. Dellagatta shows real confidence in his jab. It looked like Dellagatta was going to keep Coleman at the end of this jab all night, but as Dellagatta attempted adjust his footing at one point … WHAM! Coleman steps in and laces a left-hook that catches Dellagatta flush and knocks him out on the spot, 38 seconds in. Not an upset necessarily, but a surprise to say the least, at least the way it ended. Impressive.

Coleman, for the time being, has this tournament at the edge of his fingertips. Dellagatta, a promising and capable fighter, was perhaps regarded along with Coleman as an early favorite to win the tournament. With both fighters facing off in the first round, one of these favorites had to go down, and Coleman calmly provided the exit for Dellagatta with a brisk, short left-hook.

"I’m a pretty-good wrestler myself, but he has more credentials than me, so I figured he wanted to beat me that way", Coleman said after. "But the rumor was he wanted to bang with me, and with his reach, I wanted to stay back, in case he jabbed and wanted to take a shot. When I caught him with that first right, I figured he would want to shoot on me, but he didn’t, and I just dropped down. You know, I’m a professional; I don’t talk shit, I just fight."

Johnny Carson (The Hit Academy) vs. Jason House (Jan Jira)
After effectively chopping away at Carson’s legs with round kicks in a close first round, House reversed a Carson takedown attempt and then transitioned from mount to Carson’s back to sink in a rear choke a minute into the second.

Mike Dolce (Team Quest) vs. Mitch Whitesel (Wreck Room)
Dolce charged out hard, but got too overzealous, and looked in trouble for the first round and a half of this fight. Whitesel seemed to have all the answers, but Dolce stopped asking and started producing, earning the right to move on to the next round with a gutty performance.

Landon Showalter (Charlie’s Combat Club) vs. Don Wagner (Shido Seimei MA)
This fight started out as what looked to be a one-sided drubbing, but became a tad bit interesting in the second round. Showalter appeared to be on the brink of knocking Wagner out cold in the first round, but inexplicably fell into a bit of quicksand in the second. Showalter did enough to remain in charge though, and garnered the victory. So what was the apparent fall-off in Showalter’s performance after the first round? A broken hand, Showalter says.

"I broke my right hand on the second punch of the night. It was a frustrating night for me, I should’ve knocked him out. It was a KO waiting to happen."

Marc Stevens (Tai Kai JJ) vs. Hansel Calderon (FFA/Young Tigers)
Stevens, entertaining to watch, had an entertaining opponent — a very tall, last-minute replacement named Hansel Calderon. Calderon tried his best to slow down Stevens, which is never easy, but Stevens managed to bully and brawl his way through on the ground, and won a pretty crisp and solid unanimous decision.

FULL RESULTS:

Steve Vitti def. Joe Bentz – Triangle choke 2:50 R2

Joe Scarola def. Bill Worfolk – Armbar 1:51 R1

Rich Boine def. Kevin Roddy – TKO 0:20 R3

Colin O’Rourke def. Yon Guenecha – Tap out due to strikes 2:11 R1

Jason House def. Johnny Carson – Rear choke 1:05 R2

James Jones def. Charles Wilson – Unanimous decision

Philip Nover def. Abner Lloveras – Decision

Mike Dolce def. Mitch Whitesel – Unanimous decision

Kevin English vs. Jay Estrada – No Contest

Jay Coleman def. Dominic Dellagatta – KO 0:38 R1

Landon Showalter def. Don Wagner – Unanimous decision

Ian Loveland def. Will Kerr-Strikezone – Guillotine choke 2:22 R1

Todd Moore def. Jamie Toney – Decision

Marc Stevens def. Hansel Calderon – Unanimous decision

Reality Fighting 14 Preview
By Jim Genia

When: November 18th. Where: Boardwalk Hall, in Atlantic City. What: Reality Fighting XXIV. Kipp Kollar’s MMA promotion returns once again, this time headlined by a lightweight title match-up that pits the Garden State’s two top 155-pounders against each other. But aside from the impending Jim Miller/Frankie Edgar war – and a war it certainly shall be – the rest of the card looks solid. Here’s a look at some of the fighters:

Chris Schlesinger – United MMA
A frenzied jiu-jitsu game coupled with a strong killer instinct. That’s what Schlesinger brings into the ring whenever he fights, and his badass training partners at United MMA have helped him hone his skills to a keen edge. But in this, his second Reality Fighting title bid, Schlesinger is going to need to be razor sharp, as his opponent on November 18th is going to be his toughest test yet.

Chris Ligouri – Rhino Fight Team
Facing Schlesinger for the Reality Fighting welterweight crown, Ligouri comes in as one of the top 170-pounders in the area. He can box, he can grapple, and he’s got a ton of experience. Will Ligouri end up with the belt?

Hazem Ibrahim – Team Renzo/Almeida
Another top New Jersey fighter, Ibrahim is a smart ground-and-pounding light-heavyweight who’s not afraid to bang. With a championship belt on the line at RF14, this Team Renzo/Almeida rep will be facing a tough wrestler in Tim Boetsch. Does Ibrahim have submission skills from the bottom? We’ll most likely see.

Tom Galechio – Rhino Fight Team
He’s scrappy and he’s got heart, and slowly but surely, Rhino Fight Team wrestler Tom Galechio is making his way up the rankings. At RF14, he’ll be facing Nate Lamotte, a New England fighter purported to have strong hands as well as strong wrestling. Will Galechio get his chin tested in this one?

Cory LaPlant – Team Balance
After slamming out a win in his first fight and losing via rear choke in his second (to Tom Galechio, no less), this Sportfighting veteran is jumping over to Reality Fighting to test the waters. Expect solid wrestling and submission skills from LaPlant, who will be taking on an unknown in Ido Pariente.

After a nearly two-hour holdover to accommodate L.A.’s perpetually late and trendy, the packed house at the Culver City Memorial Auditorium got their money’s worth. Squired onto the mat by cage stalwarts Bruce Buffer and "Big" John McCarthy, a legend returned to competition without the four ounce gloves that made him a star.

Randy Couture brought the house down as he stood across rising star Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza, a two-time ADCC and Mundial Champion. Couture’s competitive blood had not been cooled by his retirement from NHB, having jumped at the opportunity earlier in the year to test his mettle against the submission ace. Rico Chapparelli, his original link to the world of ultimate fighting, would give the jiu-jitsu schooled crowd a look into how the veteran’s reaction time was faring in his early fourties.

Meeting at the center of the mat, the submission-only match took a fast turn towards Jacare’s favor as he dropped to the canvas and trapped Couture’s leg. Working to control Jacare’s body, Couture closed the distance to prevent a leg lock, then fought off a lighting-fast transition into an armbar. Staying calm, the former champ pulled back out of the hold and lunged forward to tie the Brazilian up from his half guard.

Jacare would not be deterred as he transitioned again to a triangle attempt, spinning around to Randy’s legs when that didn’t work. Jacare pulled with all of his might for a kneebar, but couldn’t power through Couture’s defense.

Amazingly enough, the nearly five submission attempts from Jacare netted no points from the judges.

"He was very slick, very quick," Couture later said. "He made me work hard just to stay in it. I was basically surviving."

Already covered in sweat and breathing hard, Couture hovered up to Jacare for the second round. The Brazilian hadn’t even broken a sweat. Jacare repeatedly dropped on his back at Randy’s feet, trying to secure a leg, but was rebuffed at every attempt. Another kneebar attempt briefly had Randy at Jacare’s back, but the wrestler couldn’t get his hooks in and ran out of time as the two stalemated once again in Jacare’s half guard.

Going into the first of two one minute sudden death rounds, the two fighters circled each other, pawing away, but never fully engaging. Though Randy was moving forward, the fighters saw the remaining two minutes slip away as Jacare once again attacked Randy’s left leg as the bell rung finally.

After the fight, Couture was encouraged by his performance against the young up-and-comer. "He’s one of the best guys on the planet at this and I managed to hang in there and stay with him," Randy said afterward. "I’d like to have a little more time to prepare next time so I can come in and be more aggressive and wrestle like myself."

Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza was extremely gracious about his opponent, stating "I knew he was going to be tough."

"He’s a great competitor. I do this because I love the sport of it, not to make my name."

In the co-main event of the evening, Marcelo Garcia fought off two guillotine attempts by Rumble on the Rock tournament winner Jake Shields to apply his own guillotine from the youngster’s guard, submitting him at 3:40 of the first round.

"The Janitor" Vladimir Matyushenko seemed unwilling to engage Brazilian Vinicius Magalhaes, scoring the single winning point after the ref gave him Maalhaes’s leg as a gift following a restart. Taking the jiu jitsu stylist to the mat, it was the lone punctuation in an extremely slow match.

Alberto Crane smothered NHB vet Joe Camacho from the beginning, scoring big with two nearly-sunk north south chokes before taking an armbar from the top position to clinch the win at 2:38 of the second.

Kron Gracie worked opponent Andy Wang’s legs very well as he scored with an attempted ankle lock. For his part, Wang couldn’t mount any solid offense as he lingered in Gracie’s guard for the majority of the bout. After a last ditch attempt at a kneebar failed, Gracie took home the win with a 4-0 score. Father Hickson Gracie was cautiously optimistic about the results. "I’m very pleased with his victory, but he’s got a lot of homework to do," Gracie said. "He gives a little too much space and I’d like him to do better next time."

Rafael Lovato outclassed Roberto Camargo with a series of guillotine and armbar attempts that racked up points and put him ahead for a 7-0 win.

Aggressive grappler Shane Rice took the fight to opponent Jeff Glover, jumping guard several times and working for footlocks that had Glover on the defense for the majority of the bout. In the end, the attempts were the difference, winning him a 3-0 victory.

King of the Cage Lightweight champ made quick work of the overmatched Allen Zborvofsky, rolling him into a north south choke that brought the tap out at 3:42 of the first.